Emir Sawdan of Sawdanid Emirate

Emir Sawdan of Sawdanid Emirate (830-) was the Emir of the Sawdanid Emirate.

Biography
Sawdan was born in 830 to a Sunni Muslim family of Berbers, the Sawdanids, in the Sawdanid Emirate (present-day Bari, Italy). Sawdan was the last emir of the Sawdanids, ruling the city wisely and being on good terms with the Jewish scholar Abu Aaron. He raided Christians and Jews during his reign, however, and Christian monastic chronicles portrayed him as "most impossible and wicked". Bari was embellished with a mosque, palaces, and public works under his rule. In 859, Lambert I of Spoleto joined Count Gerard of Marsi, Gastald Maielpoto of Telese, and Gastald Wandelbert of Boiano in blocking Sawdan from returning to Bari after fighting against Capua. After a bloody battle, the Emir was able to return to his capital.

In 867, Emperor Ludwig II of East Francia and an alliance of Italian warlords besieged Bari, and in 869 a fleet of 400 ships from the Byzantine Empire under Nicetas Ooryphas, a Croatian fleet, and an army of Franks and Lombards assaulted the city. In 871, the city fell.